Category: Site News

Almost A Big Oops!

Funny thing happened at the office yesterday… actually, I was noticing that my version of the Gallery software was now out of date. So, I downloaded the new version to my laptop and uploaded it to my server. From there, I intended to copy the file to the proper directory for extracting. Unfortunately, I made a typo. The typo ERASED this entire web site!!! Fortunately, I had a backup. However, that backup was over a month old. I was able (thank you Google!) to locate some cached archive pages from this month and last month in order to restore the entries and such that I had lost. Those of you with RSS readers pointed at my site will probably notice some duplicate entries in your readers… You might think about flushing the entries and starting over. Up to you, though.

I guess I shouldn’t try to type Linux commands while I’m tired…

So, I have restored the site fully to what it was – and completed the Gallery update – now version 1.4.3. And, it’s backed up again. Now, I should have weekly backups – it should make things easier.

I’m Back…

As you can see, the web site is back online today. After much painful and exhaustive work on my part, the site is back up. There is still more work I need to do, but I think the main problems have been solved or at least diagnosed. The rest of the problems don’t center around the web site but on my LAN… so I won’t bore you.

Anyway: it’s good to be back. Enjoy the site!

Internet Lifeline

2012-01-08 23:28:56

Sometimes the phone company does things you do not wish it to do. Like, for instance, what they have done to me. When I first moved here, I was able to get good internet service in a variety of fashions: DSL, cable modem, whatever… Since then, however, the phone company has done … ‘something’ … to my line. I am utilizing DSL as my hosting mechanism for this site and to connect to my work while I’m working from home. Unfortunately, that ‘something’ that the phone company has done has increased my line lenght so far as to make it unsupportable. So, I can only get slightly better than modem speeds – not for uplink, mind you – the site will go just as fast as it always has over the internet. But for me, working – if someone sends me a large file, it will take a LONG time to download it.

Not only that, I’m sure that if you have visited my site in the last couple of weeks, more than likely it has been unavailable. Yep. Bad link.

So – I am at a crossroads: do I cancel the DSL, try another service, try cable modem again [it works great, but is more expensive for fixed IP hosting], or try an alternate method like fixed wireless? Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a fixed wireless provider in my area, so I will have to tough it out with the tech support people until they tell me it’s not feasable and then I’ll probably call the cable company… again…

As you can see, it’s been a fun couple of weeks trying to straighten this out. And more work is yet to be done!

Spam Is Evil

Every once in a while, some dolt leaves some ‘comment spam’ on my site. This makes me angry. Most especially when it’s vulgar and inappropriate. So, I have implemented a blacklist. Comment will now be filtered for keywords and URLs containing inappropriate content. If you post, post nicely.

The Ever Changing Face…

I like to change things every once in a while. At present, I am toying with web styles. I like to change the colors and feel of the site periodically. This look is nice and clean, but I’m still looking for a distinctive “me” look. I am trying to learn more and more about CSS and how I can use that to make the page look spiffy and stylistically consistent. So, if you happen to be browsing to my site and see it look hideous or illegible, then I might just be in the process of testing a new look. Or, I might just have very bad taste! If you see something that is truly hideous, please let me know… leave a comment or something… I love comments… at least comments from people and not SPAM generating machines…